BANGALORE: Wipro Ltd., India's third-largest software exporter, said on
Wednesday that British life insurer Friends Provident Plc has chosen it as a
software development partner.
Wipro Technologies, Wipro's infotech services arm, said in a statement it
will offer software services, maintenance and system integration to Friends
Provident through a software center set up in India for the firm. Wipro will
also work at the life insurer's sites abroad but the majority of work will be
done through the Indian center, a company official told Reuters.
Friends Provident, a 170-year-old company, is among UK's largest listed life
insurance group by market value. On Wednesday afternoon, Wipro's stock was up
0.90 per cent at Rs 1,364.0 while Bombay's main index was down 0.56 per cent.
Wipro and other leading firms are trying to improve profit margins amidst a
slowdown in software orders by boosting the share of work done in India for
overseas clients rather than at customer sites abroad. Doing so enables Indian
companies to perform the work more cheaply, thus potentially attracting more
business.
Wipro's software revenues are equally split between offshore and onsite work
but about 80 per cent of its 10,000 strong staff are based in India.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.